Bloggy Business Today

By Ernest Scheyder

Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:01am EST

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp’s (XOM.N) fourth-quarter profit narrowly beat Wall Street’s expectations as rising crude oil prices offset falling margins for chemicals, engine lubricants and fuel.

The results sent Exxon Mobil’s shares down 1 percent to $84.68 in premarket trading on Wall Street, where analysts and investors have come to expect results that widely beat expectations.

Production of natural gas and crude oil slipped during the period.

The company posted net income of $9.4 billion, or $1.97 per share, compared with $9.25 billion, or $1.85 per share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts expected earnings of $1.96 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The quarterly profit was Exxon Mobil’s lowest for 2011.

Total revenue rose 16 percent to $121.61 billion. Analysts expected $119.7 billion in revenue.

Oil companies around the world benefited from a jump in oil prices during the fourth quarter. Crude futures traded in New York jumped about 25 percent to end the quarter at $98.83 per barrel. Brent prices gained 5 percent during the quarter.

The price jump helped to lift Exxon Mobil’s profit in the upstream unit, which produces oil and natural gas, by 18 percent. Land sales also lifted the results, the company said.

Still, the weak economy harmed Exxon Mobil’s margins. Profit at Exxon Mobil’s downstream unit, which makes engine lubricant, fell 13 percent. The chemical unit, which makes plastics and related products, saw profit drop 49 percent.

The Irving, Texas-based company spent $10 billion during the quarter on capital projects and exploration, in line with the same period in 2010.

(Reporting By Ernest Scheyder, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Article source: here

NEW YORK |
Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:15am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock erased early gains and turned negative after weaker-than-expected data on Midwest business activity and consumer confidence.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 6.66 points, or 0.05 percent, to 12,647.06. The Standard Poor’s 500 Index .SPX.INX lost 0.55 points, or 0.04 percent, to 1,312.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC shed 0.78 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,811.16.

(Reporting By Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Article source: here

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FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), a leading national retailer of innovative mobile and technology products, services and accessories, today announced preliminary, unaudited results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011.

Total net sales and operating revenues from continuing operations for the 2011 fourth quarter increased approximately 6% to $1.39 billion compared to $1.31 billion for the fourth quarter last year. Comparable store sales for company-operated stores increased approximately 2% during the 2011 fourth quarter.  Consolidated gross profit as a percent of net sales in the 2011 fourth quarter is expected to be approximately 35%, compared to 41% in the 2010 fourth quarter.  Diluted earnings per share for the 2011 fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of $0.11 to $0.13, compared to $0.51 per diluted share reported in the 2010 fourth quarter.

The decrease in gross margin in the 2011 fourth quarter, compared to the 2010 fourth quarter, reflects a shift in mix within mobility sales towards certain lower margin smartphones and mobile devices; a higher percentage of mobility sales in the overall revenue mix, largely driven by the Company’s expansion of Target mobile centers; and the impact of a more promotional holiday season.

The Company’s results for the fourth quarter are due in large part to the underperformance of the Sprint postpaid wireless business and reflect further unanticipated changes in Sprint’s customer and credit models.  These changes resulted in fewer new and upgrade activations and a decline in Sprint postpaid revenues in the fourth quarter compared to the 2010 fourth quarter and compared to third quarter 2011.  In addition, fourth-quarter results reflect a highly promotional holiday season and ongoing pressures on consumer spending.

“Our transition continues as we work to maximize our mobility business opportunities, particularly now that our assortment includes the top three national wireless carriers,” said Jim Gooch, president and chief executive officer.  “In that regard, we continue to make progress in the mobility sector with growth in sales of new iconic handsets, incremental sales growth from new partner Verizon Wireless, higher revenues from ATT, and higher sales of tablets and e-readers.  However, we are disappointed that these positives were overshadowed by significant declines in our

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By Jan Strupczewski and Luke Baker

BRUSSELS |
Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:52am EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European leaders struggled to reconcile austerity with growth on Monday at a summit due to approve a permanent rescue fund for the euro zone and put finishing touches to a German-driven pact for stricter budget discipline.

Officially, the half-day summit was meant to focus mainly on ways to rekindle growth and create jobs at a time when governments across Europe are having to cut public spending and raise taxes to tackle mountains of debt.

But disputes over the limits of austerity, and about Greece’s unresolved debt restructuring negotiations with private bondholders, may sour efforts to send a more optimistic message that Europe is getting on top of its debt crisis.

The risk premium on southern European government bonds rose and stocks were lower on concerns about a lack of tangible progress in the Greek debt talks and gloom about Europe’s economic outlook.

Highlighting those fears, Spain’s economy contracted in the last quarter of 2011 for the first time in two years and looks set to slip into a long recession.

Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, attending his first EU summit, said Madrid was clearly not going to meet its target of 2.3 percent growth this year. That has raised big doubts about whether it can cut its budget deficit from around 8 percent of economic output in 2011 to 4.4 percent by the end of this year as promised.

Italy, rushing through economic reforms under new technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti, was rewarded with a significant fall in its borrowing costs at an auction of 10- and 5-year bonds, despite double-notch downgrades of its credit rating by Standard Poor’s and Fitch this month.

But Portugal’s slide towards becoming the next Greece – needing a second bailout to avoid chaotic bankruptcy – gathered pace as banks raised the cost of insuring government bonds against default and insisted the money be paid up front instead of over several years.

The yield spread on 10-year Portuguese bonds over safe haven German Bunds topped 15 percentage points for the first time in the euro era. It cost a record 3.9 million euros ($5.12 million) to insure 10 million euros of Portuguese debt.

OUTLAWING KEYNES?

With Britain standing aloof, most of the other 26 EU leaders were set to approve a fiscal pact to write balanced budget rules into their national law, despite economists’ doubts about the wisdom of effectively outlawing deficit spending.

“To write into law a

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